Re: [PATCH v1 1/7] auxdisplay: charlcd: Partially revert "Move hwidth and bwidth to struct hd44780_common"

[Geert Uytterhoeven]

Hi Andy,

On Mon, 10 Mar 2025 at 09:12, Andy Shevchenko
<andriy.shevchenko@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx> wrote:
> On Fri, Mar 07, 2025 at 08:05:56PM +0100, Geert Uytterhoeven wrote:
> > On Fri, 7 Mar 2025 at 19:57, Andy Shevchenko
> > <andriy.shevchenko@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx> wrote:
> > > On Fri, Mar 07, 2025 at 07:14:02PM +0100, Geert Uytterhoeven wrote:
> > > > On Fri, 7 Mar 2025 at 17:57, Andy Shevchenko
> > > > <andriy.shevchenko@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx> wrote:
> > > > > On Fri, Mar 07, 2025 at 10:03:31AM +0100, Geert Uytterhoeven wrote:
> > > > > > On Mon, 24 Feb 2025 at 18:30, Andy Shevchenko
> > > > > > <andriy.shevchenko@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx> wrote:
> > > > > > > The commit 2545c1c948a6 ("auxdisplay: Move hwidth and bwidth to struct
> > > > > >
> > > > > > s/The commit/Commit/
> > > > >
> > > > > Why? We know that we are talking about the very specific commit.
> > > >
> > > > You can have a noun with or without an article:
> > >
> > > This is not so simple :-), esp. if a noun is a weekday or a toponym.
> > >
> > > >   - "a commit": an unspecified commit,
> > > >   - "the commit": a specific commit, specified by context.
> > > >   - "commit 1234abcd": a specific commit, specified by what follows.
> > > >
> > > > > My English is not native I would appreciate a link to a material to study
> > > > > the case you pointed out.
> > > >
> > > > Neither is mine, but the use of articles is similar in English and Dutch.
> > > > (I am aware your mother tongue does not have articles ;-)
> > > >
> > > > I found plenty of articles explaining cases 1 and 2.
> > > > Case 3 can be considered equivalent to "Mount Everest" in
> > > > https://learnenglish.britishcouncil.org/grammar/a1-a2-grammar/articles-the-or-no-article
> > >
> > > Okay, so you actually think that the hash and the title can be considered as
> > > "name of a place". Hmm... I don't think it applies here. It's not a place.
> > > Moreover some places require "the" article.
> >
> > Only if they are a region, not if they are a country (yes, that's
> > unrelated here).
> >
> > > Here https://www.butte.edu/departments/cas/tipsheets/grammar/articles.html,
> > > for example, the sentence "The 2003 federal budget" sounds to me closer to
> > > our case. Every year there is a federal budget, but we explicitly point out
> > > to one and reader knows what is this. The same with the commit.
> > >
> > > Sorry, but I am still not convinced.
> >
> > In "The 2003 federal budget", both "2003" and "federal" are adjectives.
> > In "commit 1234abcd", "1234abcd" is a name.
> >
> > Cfr. "King Charles".  "The King Charles" would be used only when
> > putting a very special emphasis on "king".
>
> I have talked to the language teacher (okay, her native is not English),
> and she told me that no article is for the cases of location, person, or
> character. None of that category the commit falls into.
>
> So, still not convinced.

I have a hard time finding the official rule (git commits did not
exist when English grammar was written ;-)... Examples are easier to
find.  E.g. the first sentence on [1] does not start with an article:

   European route E40 is the longest European route.

[1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/European_route_E40

Gr{oetje,eeting}s,

                        Geert

-- 
Geert Uytterhoeven -- There's lots of Linux beyond ia32 -- geert@xxxxxxxxxxxxxx

In personal conversations with technical people, I call myself a hacker. But
when I'm talking to journalists I just say "programmer" or something like that.
                                -- Linus Torvalds